IT is not an exaggeration to say that thepersons and incidents portrayed in thegreat literature of a people influencenational character no less potently thanthe actual heroes and events enshrined inits history. It may be claimed that theformer play an even more important partin the formation of ideals, which give tocharacter its impulse of growth.In the moving history of our land, fromtime immemorial great minds have beenformed and nourished and touched toheroic deeds by the Ramayana and theMahabharata. In most Indian homes,children formerly learnt these immortalstories as they learnt their mother tongueat the mother's knee. And the sweetnessand sorrows of Sita and Draupadi, theheroic fortitude of Rama and Arjuna andthe loving fidelity of Lakshmana andHanuman became the stuff of their youngphilosophy of life.The growing complexity of life haschanged the simple pattern of early homelife. Still, there are few in our land who donot know the Ramayana and theMahabharata. Though the stories come tothem so embroidered with the garishfancies of the Kalakshepam (devotionalmeeting where an expert scholar andsinger tells a story to his audience) and thecinema as to retain but little of the dignityand approach to truth of Vyasa orValmiki. Vyasa's Mahabharata is one of our noblest heritages. And it is mycherished belief that to hear it faithfullytold is to love it and come under itselevating influence. It strengthens the souland drives home, as nothing else does, thevanity of ambition and the evil and futilityof anger and hatred.The realities of life are idealised by geniusand given the form that makes drama,poetry or great prose. Since literature isclosely related to life, so long as thehuman family is divided into nations,literature cannot escape the effects of suchdivision.But the highest literature transcendsregionalism and through it, when we areproperly attuned, we realise the essentialoneness of the human family. TheMahabharata is of this class. It belongs tothe world and not only to India. To thepeople of India, indeed, this epic has beenan unfailing and perennial source of spiritual strength. Learnt at the mother'sknee with reverence and love, it hasinspired great men to heroic deeds as wellas enabled the humble to face their trialswith fortitude and faith.The Mahabharata was composed manythousand years ago. But generations of gifted reciters have added to Vyasa'soriginal a great mass of material. All thefloating literature that was thought to beworth preserving, historical, geographical,legendary political, theological andphilosophical, of nearly thirty centuries,found a place in it.In those days, when there was no printing,interpolation in a recognised classicseemed to correspond to inclusion in thenational library. Divested of theseaccretions, the Mahabharata is a noblepoem possessing in a supreme degree thecharacteristics of a true epic, great andfateful movement, heroic characters andstately diction.The characters in the epic move with thevitality of real life. It is difficult to findanywhere such vivid portraiture on soample a canvas. Bhishma, the perfectknight; the venerable Drona; the vain butchivalrous Karna; Duryodhana, whoseperverse pride is redeemed by greatcourage in adversity; the high souledPandavas with godlike strength as well aspower of suffering; Draupadi, mostunfortunate of queens; Kunti, the worthy